As another installment of our weekly feature covering things that confound me gets underway, let's blast out of the gates with a trip to Davos, Switzerland and the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. That is, the assembly of world leaders and influencers who gather yearly to:
- Be inspired by the reasoned tones of Al Gore…
- Be moved by utterly rational declarations of people with fancy visual screens and cool hats about justice and spirits…
- Be lectured by wealthy CEOs like Siemens' Jim Hagemann about how filet mignon is destroying our world…
Of course, all the typical absurdities apply – these wealthy and powerful elites jetting in on carbon-belching private planes that crowd runways to tell the peasants of the world they need to cut back on their comforts.
And while I was heartened to read the CNN headline that surprisingly admitted, "Davos draws record crowds, but its relevance is fading," I still cannot fathom how the people who elect and suffer these overfed, overeducated, over-pampered bullies continue to do so. Because they "care?" Remember philosopher and author Albert Camus is credited with having pointed out,
The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.
I don't need to see anything else from Davos this year to say I'm good if we stop doing that anytime.
Meanwhile, in other news, a shock poll was released by The Hill:
The poll was performed by Morning Consult and showed Trump with 48% to DeSantis at 31% among "potential Republican primary voters." That means registered voters nationally, not usually a good barometer of actual voters.
Still, I don't get it. I know it's before DeSantis has even officially entered the race. But still, I don't get it. I don't know how the Republican Party became so enamored, and has remained so infatuated with Trumpism.
Keep in mind that in recent weeks the former president has partied with LGBT activist revolutionaries, referring to the sexual anarchist crusade as "our movement." He also lashed out at pro-life conservatives, blaming them and their devotion to defending the human rights of unborn children for costing the party smashing midterm victories.
While some Trump backers like commentators Jesse Kelly and Lou Dobbs have vocally expressed their disenchantment with the former president, this poll suggests a large percentage of the party remains loyal. I don't get it. The man remains unprincipled, unable to build coalitions, quick to turn on allies for even the slightest transgression, not reasonably loyal to any convictions besides the one that says he should be the center of attention at all times.
Surely Republicans aren't willing to walk that plank again, right?
Finally, so many on the Right were ecstatic to see the recent speech from Konstantin Kisin, the satirist who wowed social media with his recent dissection of wokism's failures. Following the attention his speech garnered, Kisin appeared on Tucker Carlson's program to talk about it. In the course of doing so, he pointed out the key to reaching young people is "to believe young people are persuadable."
It's actually remarkable that the Right has lost sight of that reality. Young people drift leftward for a reason – they are persuadable. So many are beginning to think for the first time by themselves when they go to college. They are presented with shiny, new ideas, packaged nicely by professors who are proficient in the language of their own progressive ideology. To many young people, the presentation is impressive, unique, and best of all, different than what "everyone at home" believes. So they gravitate towards it. They are persuadable.
The Right typically grouses about it, complains about it, and flips out about the indoctrination facilities we call universities that are warping their kids. And while I would be the first to support blowing up the higher education system in the United States and starting over, there's a far more realistic and effective way to approach the issue: articulate better ideas and get them in front of young people.
American Family Radio host and former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis tweeted about this very thing:
A conservatism that was less focused on the shock value of Charlie Kirk, Tomi Larhen, and Candace Owens? Yeah, I think we'd benefit from that.
